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Iqbal – A Quest for Reality BY Amir Suhail Wani and Adfar Shah In the galaxy of stalwarts who changed course of civilization, made extraordinary contributions in ordinary premises and elevated human intellect, Iqbal occupies the top position. Iqbalian thought has brought about an ideological and mental paradigm shift on the holistic Asian continent particularly on south Asia. The profundity of his vision, the width of his wisdom, the veracity and vibrancy of his message has stimulated every conscious Muslim in one way or the other. Rising above the communal and ethnic demarcations, Iqbal’s thought ultimately transcended the fabric of space and time and it is here from that Iqbal exposes man to the eternal realities of existence. His conception of ultimate reality does not lead him to pantheism but to a spiritual pluralist. For him the whole universe is a bunch of ego’s or singular spiritual particles, which interaction and possessing specific statuses of ego-hood.for iqbal self exists by virtue of the existence of God and gets expression through his self revelation. He writes in Armugani-Hijaz: “Khudi ra az wajod haq wajode Khudi ra az namod haq namode”. Iqbal’s considerable proportion of poetry spins around his “falsafai --khudi” or “the philosophy of the self”. This philosophy of self spiraled as an aftermath of critical exposition of,“God, universe and self” a triangle undertaken by Iqbal. He revealed some of the decisive parameters of this triangle that were hitherto latent from human intellect. Iqbal lived in an age where classical ideas were still upheld. The picture of man as “biological machine “governed by Kantian philosophy of determinism was abhorred by Iqbal. He emphasized the spiritual aspect of man and in doing so he lifted man beyond physical, biological and psychological dimensions of cosmos. Iqbal opined that man has a corpuscle of divine light whose discovery escorts him to higher levels of consciousness and whose negligence reduces him to sub-human stratum. Iqbal sought self-consciousness as gateway to God-consciousness. Man is the subject as well as object of kalami-iqbal. As per Iqbal man is an ambassador of Allah and is thus pertinently entitled to “khalifat ul arz”. Man is treasure of secrets and a microcosm in him. Though chemical in composition, he is metaphysical by constitution. His outer simplicity conceals his inner complexity and his biology shadows his spirituality. Conquering the cosmic frontiers at one end man fails to comprehend his existence at other end. Addressing this conundrum of lack of comprehension of man Iqbal says: “Tilismi bood wa adm,naam hai jiska Adam Khuda ka raaz hai,nahi qadir is par sukhan" The greatness of Iqbal lies in his realistic approach. He placed great emphasis on action and condemned utopian and idealistic theories. His poetry conveys a message of vibrancy and dynamism. Iqbal never steers man to fairy land rather escorts man to the same vantage point where he himself stood and from where he peeped deep into cosmos. Iqbal is not a paper philosopher or pen poet but a dynamic and realistic ideologue. He sketched a concrete and tangible path to materialize his philosophy and didn’t let it to be an aerial doctrine. Such is the appeal of his poetry that it broke the 400 year old lull in Islamic world and imparted propelling momentum to Iranian revolution. Lamenting over stagnation of Muslims, as was against his (as well as quranic) spirit he cried: “Mohabbat ka junoon baqi nahi hai Musalmanoo mai khoon baqi nahi hai Safay kaj ,sajda bay zooq,dil paraisha Ki jazbi androon baqi nahi hai The source of Iqbaliyan philosophy is an in-depth study of Quran. Being divinely inspired and in accordance with the glorious quran, he wrote: “Harfi quran ra mada ki zahir ast Zairi zahir batinay hum qahir ast” Iqbal dived into the depths of Quran and gained a deep insight of Quranic wisdom. He sought Quran as an antidote of arrogance & ignorance. He declared the degree of accord with Quran as the decisive factor in evaluating the degree of success of Muslim world. He made a categorical assertion that there is no scope for the perpetuation of Islam lest we revert back to the Quran as he says: “Gar tu mi khwahi musalma zeestan Niest mumkin juzbi Qur’a zeestan.” In the same vein he writes: “Qur’a mai hou gut azan ae mardi masalmaan Allah kare tujhe ata jidate kirdaar” It was not via philosophy that Iqbal reached to Quran rather he framed his philosophy in Quranic preview. It is thus that despite philosophical intricacies, he culminated at spirituality. He not only fathomed the Quranic depths but cultivated Quranic philosophy in himself to such an extent that Khalifa Abdul Hakeem eloquently remarks that “He was the poet of Quran & the Quran of poet”. As Mard-i-Momin is an ideal man of Islamic code of life and the basic premise of that code is monotheism. iqbal’s Mard-i-Momin is exclusive in its existence unlike Nietzsche’s superman as Allama believed in personal immortality AND HIS (Nietzsche's )Superman was a biological product, rather than the product of moral and spiritual forces.. The summary of all insight and all philosophical dimensions which Iqbal gained from Quran in whole of his life can be sublimely encapsulated in a single doctrine of “Ishqi Rasool[s.a.w]”. This is the climax of Iqbal’s poetry and the stop line of all his philosophical vision. He placed this love above all “perception gained knowledge”. In Iqbal’s words: “Ishq sarapa hazoor,ilm sarapa hijab Ishq ki garmi say hai mourikai kainat Ilm muqami sifat,ishq tamashai zaat Ishq sakoon wa sabat ,ishq hayat o mamat It becomes amply evident that Iqbal circumventing his philosophical bent, intellectual attributes and his well versed acquaintance with western arts and sciences took final shelter under Ishqi Rasool [s.a.w].He viewed this ishq as the wealth of deprived , refuge in deluge, glam in gloom, edge in the Erie. The ultimate cry that comes from the heart of hearts of Iqbal cries; “Ba Mustafa (s.a.w) bersaan kheash ra ki deen hama oust Agar ba o na rassedi tamam boo lahbi ast” To understand Iqbal’s conception of reality we need to recognize the trio of body, mind and spirit belonging to the common stem of soul and for him mind and spirit are identical and consciousness a spiritual principle and body a colony of ego’s.. For him it is the thought and purpose which intermingles to form the real existence. For him in soul is concealed the secret of the universe and body is the state among the states of life. (Amir Suhail is a BTeh student at NIT Srinagar,Kashmir,India and Adfar Shah is a doctoral candidate of Sociology at Jamia Millia Islamia-Central University, New Delh).
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Amir Suhail Wani, Adfar Shah, Allama Iqbal, Okhla Times, Rising Kashmir.,
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